Improved Performance and Critical Thinking in Economics Students Using Current Event Journaling Sahar Bahmani, Ph.D. WI Teaching Fellow INTRODUCTION For the past 10 years, each semester, I have students look at current events Students write a 1 page paper where they (1) site source (2) summarize the findings (3) link economics to the event (4) share their opinion on the subject matter Done at the start of the semester as well as at the end of the semester They also present the current event to the class and we have active discussions, as a class For this project, I had students do regular current event journaling more than just twice in the semester 4 current event analysis conducted Goal: I am interested in regular current event journaling and its impact on both performance and student critical thinking OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT: Investigate the positive impact of incorporating current event analysis in economics courses on critical thinking Students pick current events in the news, be it on television, in print, or radio, that are local, regional, national or international in scope and relate it to economic concepts studied in the classroom by writing a series of analysis that include critical thinking in order to see the topics in our lessons applied in the real world. Helps students see the connection between theory presented in our text and how it easily applies to their day-to-day lives, not just in monetary terms but also in their decision-making. Critical thinking skills of the students evolve and become more and more advanced, as well as their ability to identify economic links in research, as we moved forward in the semester METHOD and DATA COLLECTION Spring 2013, I polled my Principles of Microeconomics course. 20 questions were asked of them and I have tabulated the statistics. Overall, participants were eager to have more than just 2 current event analysis per semester because they found it to be a very beneficial and engaging activity in the course that many of them really enjoyed. Therefore, Fall 2013 I had the students write and present 4 current event analysis in 2 of my courses. To measure PERFORMANCE, I compared these 2 courses by looking at exam scores and the overall GPA in the course using the end of the semester letter grades. This is a comparison of the same course, one taught with regular journaling, which includes 4 current event analysis, while the control group is the same course taught without regular journaling, meaning just 2 current event analysis. One is an upper level course while the other is an introductory level course: Econ 260/360 Industrial Organization Fall 2011(no regular journaling) vs. Fall 2013 (with journaling) Econ 120 Principles of Microeconomics Spring 2013 (no regular journaling) vs. Fall 2013 (with journaling) Hypothesis: The average midterm, the average final exam scores and the average final semester letter grades will be higher in the course that incorporates regular current event analysis compared to the course that does not, because it helps students to frequently see how classroom lessons and theory apply to the real world regularly. To measure CRITICAL THINKING, my main interest is if students’ understanding of economics and their critical thinking skills evolved over the course of the semester in the same 2 courses. I will evaluate critical thinking based on a developed rubric as the semester evolves in 1 lower level and 1 upper level economics course in Fall 2013: Econ 120 Principles of Microeconomics and Econ 260/360 Industrial Organization. Hypothesis: The amount of critical thinking displayed by students will increase in each separate course (one upper level and one introductory level economics course) as the semester moves forward, evolving as they expose themselves to more economic events and have more in class discussions about those events. DISCUSSION When faculty assess student learning styles to improve academic performance, at the start of each chapter, we explain why we are studying particular concepts in order to catch the attention of all the different types of student learning styles. I believe that in order to really prove to students the relevance behind studying different concepts is for them to find that purpose also. I push them to apply classroom discussions to their daily lives. Having students look at current events to discover and establish the link and connection my classroom teachings have to the real world, helps the material to really be absorbed and understood by students. It is also important for them to retain this information presented in introductory principles level economics courses to be used in their futures. The results of the project not only benefit my own work in the classroom as well as my students, but also the work of my colleagues within my department and discipline, helping us all to improve teaching and learning outcomes in the classroom. Learning economics through a more hands-on approach of having students analyzing different topics that they are really interested in and then evaluating how economics applies to that particular news story really helps students grasp how economics really does surround them at all times and to understand the purpose behind our lessons in principles level economics courses. This project helps them reflect on our lessons and delve into a deeper type of learning that is more comprehensive, so that they can see the full picture of markets and economies. The findings can help others as well, when the results are presented and shared across the system. As a result of this project, this can lead to pedagogy of students applying economics applications, contributing to more long-term knowledge retention. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to OPID as well as the University of Wisconsin at Parkside’s Provost’s Office for their support of this project. I would like to thank Stephanie Nistler, an economics major and student at UWP, who served as a student research assistant for this project. Analysis  Makes judgments regarding validity  Determines value of presented evidence  Identifies misleading or false claims and biases  Scrutinizes information source  Recognizes that correlation does not prove causation Comprehension  Generalizes findings/conclusions to other situations or events  Discussion of related topics  Related findings to existing literature or knowledge  Proposes alternative explanations  Seeks to clarify issue with additional information  Integrates material from class into discussion Application  Identifies practical uses for data/conclusions  Explores implementation of information into existing psychological practices  Considers whether phenomena are universal or cultural  Identifies limitations of theory or data RESULTS The main findings of this study: Aggregate final semester letter grades, in GPA format, improved Aggregate exam scores improved when the students do more current event journaling in the same course, rather than just 2 per semester Regular current event journaling helps overall student performance in the course Regular current event journaling helps improve critical thinking In the last 2 current event analysis, compared to the first 2, student critical thinking increased and became more frequent. They would consult other sources to verify findings. As students conducted more frequent journaling, the quality of current event sources that students were selecting, improved Econ 120Analysis 1 Analysis 2 Analysis 3 Analysis 4 Analysis Comprehension Application Econ 360Analysis 1 Analysis 2 Analysis 3 Analysis 4 Analysis Comprehension Application